Knife of Dreams

Executive Summary: Slow in places, but nothing like the last few books. This book felt like a return to form for Mr. Jordan. Sadly it was his last. Audiobook: Another fantastic job from Michael Kramer and Kate Reading. They really make this world come alive and have always made the slower parts of the series pass by much easier. Full ReviewI remember really enjoying this book on my first read. I enjoyed it just as much on my second. By this point in the series Mat was by far my favorite character. This book is a lot of Mat. This time around I still enjoyed his parts the best. We also probably get one of my favorite revelations of the series during his chapters.Tuon is an interesting character, but I don't think I appreciated how horrible she actually is. Her actions towards slavery and particularly the way women who can channel are treated like animals is appalling. Yet despite all that, I still find her parts particularly enjoyable. I'm not sure how to resolve those conflicting feelings with each other.We also finally get some resolution to one of my least favorite subplots. Perrin used to be my favorite, but for the last several books his chapters have been frustrating. Now things can move on, and if I remember correctly, I enjoyed the rest of his story much more than the middle parts.Nynaeve had a relatively small part in this book, but what she did is yet another reason that despite all the braid tugging and skirt straightening that she became one of my favorites of the series.The stuff with Rand has also gotten much better and a few of the most interesting chapters in the book belong to him.Egwene's chapters are probably my favorite after Mat's. In the last few books she was starting to really come into her own, and her circumstances in this book let her really shine on her own. Elaine on the other hand I found a bit of a struggle to read. It seemed as though her story was dragged out a bit too much. Things are finally moving along by the end of the book however.The last few books seemed to be a lot of moving pieces around, and this book seems to finally be moving things along. It really is the beginning of the end of the series, and sadly the last complete book we got from Mr. Jordan. This series gets a lot of (deserved) criticism for it's length, but I feel like with this book we were finally getting the quality of those first few books that made me fall in love with the series in the first place.It's a shame he didn't get to finish it on his own, but as a rather biased [a:Brandon Sanderson 38550 Brandon Sanderson https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1394044556p2/38550.jpg] fan, I hope Mr. Jordan would be content with how the rest of the series turned out. I know I am.